Measuring for dilution

C

CharlesW

The Rainmaker
1. This forum deserves more action than it gets.
2. The measuring dispenser that fits on the top of many gallon containers is a great tool.
3. Something else that works good for this is a container that was used for Sta-Bil gasoline stabilizer. It has two spouts and one of them can be used to measure an amount by squeezing the bottle. I use one for measuring out my APC. The Micro-Restore bottle should work good for this purpose as well.

Charles
 
I still do everything by eye, but I have used shot glasses or sometimes plastic medicine cups from the kids cough medicine. ....and no i don't use it for the kids again afterwards;)
 
Poorboy said:
I still do everything by eye
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It's really difficult getting some of you old timers to change.:D
Another thing I like about the Sta-Bil bottle is the fact that it is smaller and that makes it quite easy to have extra around if I need to mix up more solution.
Poorboy said:
but I have used shot glasses or sometimes plastic medicine cups from the kids cough medicine. ....and no i don't use it for the kids again afterwards;)
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Gave up drinking so the shot glasses are gone. Got rid of the kids so the medicine cups are gone. I did keep one baby bottle with the graduation markings on it.:)

Charles
 
Yes, it's hard for some of us to change :eek: ...I don't drink either but I did get a couple shot glasses at a flea market and even adult cough medicine comes with a little plastic measuring cup ;) I only measure when i'm doing testing, so that i can share the info with others who need exact measurements :smile
 
In my case, it's a combination.
I measure the product and then eyeball, (with the help of the markings on the bottles), the water being added.
In my twisted way of thinking, a little too much or too little of the concentrated product is of more concern than having the exact amount of water.
Another one of those "whatever works for you" things.

Charles
 
CharlesW said:
...
In my twisted way of thinking, a little too much or too little of the concentrated product is of more concern than having the exact amount of water....
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Doesn't seem twisted, except that it would seem that one equals the other....:confused:

Over the years (turned decades :) ) I have worked towards being a bit more aware of recommended dilutions. To help me, I have an old (how old I don't know, but more than 10 years) plastic laundry detergent measuring cup (a freebie) that I use to measure car wash soap. Most of my spray bottles have 1 or 2 ounce incremental markings. One or two have actual dilution ratios (ie. "fill to here") markings. By doing so helps me, at a minimum, establish base points allowing me to tweak the ratios if needed to acheive the most effective product usages (performance and cost) to fit my needs.
 
Mr. Clean said:
Doesn't seem twisted, except that it would seem that one equals the other....:confused:
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Similar, but to me, not equal.
10:1 dilution ratio, 10 parts water, 1 part product.
Too much water by 1 oz., 11 parts water, 1 part product, the ratio is now 11:1.
Too much product by 1 oz., 10 parts water, 2 parts product, the ratio is now 5:1.
The point being that IMO a little too much or too little water doesn't affect the overall dilution nearly as much as a little too much/little product.
Considering that people use widely varying ratios of product, it probably isn't all that important. I still try to follow what the manufacturer recommends.

Charles
 
I have some small Tupperware storage thingy that has graduations and I use that but mainly for soap. For APC and other things I buy the sprayers that have the dilution gratuations on them, I think the ZEP sprayers have them marked on them.

"J"
 
My spray bottles have measurement graduation marks and several have dilution ratios listed as well.
My problem with that is that I seldom ever use a bottle until it is completely empty. When they are about 1/2 full, I usually top them off so I don't have to worry about running out of that particular product the next time I use it.

Charles
 
Old or young, sometimes you just have to measure.
Here in Canada, it's worse. We went metric about 20 years ago so it's ounces, mls, ccs, and converting between the two systems.
My basement looks like a small chem. lab with graduated cylinders, baby bottles, measuring spoons, bunsen burners, syringes large and small and the list goes on. All geared to measuring.
Consider:
1 US gal. = 128 oz = 3.78 litres = 3780 millilitres.
1 US quart = 32 oz = 0.945 litres = 945 millilitres.
1 US pint = 16 oz = 0.4725 litres = 472.5 millilitres.
1 US oz = 29.53 millilitres.

CharlesW, that was a good example of how the 'smaller' dillutant is more important to measure accurately than the larger one.

My shot glasses are measured with a line that says '29.53' mls and it just sounds weird to say, 'Excuse me my little lotus blossom, might I trouble you to please bring my friend and I 472.5 mls of your finest nut brown ale.' It just looses something in the translation.
-John C.
 
JohnZ3MC said:
My shot glasses are measured with a line that says '29.53' mls and it just sounds weird to say, 'Excuse me my little lotus blossom, might I trouble you to please bring my friend and I 472.5 mls of your finest nut brown ale.' It just looses something in the translation.
-John C.
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You're right, it does.
Although when I was a serious drinker, it would have only mattered for the first few bottles. After that, it was just "Bring me a beer!" :D

Charles
 
CharlesW said:
My spray bottles have measurement graduation marks and several have dilution ratios listed as well.
My problem with that is that I seldom ever use a bottle until it is completely empty. When they are about 1/2 full, I usually top them off so I don't have to worry about running out of that particular product the next time I use it.

Charles
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Where did you get your spray bottles from? I've been using Meguiar's, but their generic bottle doesn't have any ratios and the product specific bottles only have the ratios marked for that specific product. I recently bought a couple of zep bottles from Home Depot, but I don't think they are PVC because they sort of "deflate" when the product is in the bottle. I just bought some from AutoGeek to see how those are.
 
jsfofec said:
Where did you get your spray bottles from? I've been using Meguiar's, but their generic bottle doesn't have any ratios and the product specific bottles only have the ratios marked for that specific product. I recently bought a couple of zep bottles from Home Depot, but I don't think they are PVC because they sort of "deflate" when the product is in the bottle. I just bought some from AutoGeek to see how those are.
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Other than some Zep from Home Depot, I'm not sure where they came from. It's about a 90% chance that they came from either Target or Wal*Mart, though. I'm pretty sure they were from the garden center.
FWIW, I didn't like the Zep sprayers at all and ended up giving them away or trading them, I don't remember which.
I think most of my spray bottles were about $1 or a very little more. The Zep was $3 or $4 and I liked them the least.
The ratios are of no value to me, but the ounce markings are handy.

Charles
 
Thanks! I'll have to go look for those next time at Target...my wife is always dragging me out there
 
jsfofec said:
Thanks! I'll have to go look for those next time at Target...my wife is always dragging me out there
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Good luck.
In my area, both Target and Wal*Mart tend to clear out most of their garden stuff at the end of the season. You may have to wait until spring for them to reappear.:)

Charles
 
I use these type cups for measuring (mini size is great for soaps).
For some dilutions I use the spray bottles with measurements on the side.
 
One of the advantages of using the smaller dual spout bottles is only having to work with a 16 or 32 oz. bottle. A 128 oz. gallon jug is kind of a nuisance to work with when quite often all you are needing is 1 or 2 oz. of product.

The bottle looks like this:
MicroRestoreBottle.jpg


Charles
 
With regards to mixing APCs and carpet solutions and a couple others, I mix them into empty 5 gallon containers. They are marked in 1 gallon increments, with about a half gallon of extra space at the top. This allows me to calculate exactly how much product I'll need to add to 5 gallons of water and I have the solution mixed quickly.

As a hint, better to put the water in first so you get less foam than if you dumped in the product to be diluted first.

While I have 5's on a metal rack in the basement, I can carry the one(s) I need to use in the garage that day and not spend time playing chemist while in the midst of a job.
 
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